Beyond Barking: How to Truly Help Your Reactive Dog: Response to Triggers

When you live with a reactive dog, it can feel like you’re constantly managing explosions—barking, lunging, growling, freezing. It’s intense. And it’s tempting to focus on stopping those behaviors. But here’s the truth: it won't help to suppress your dog’s behavior - you need to help them respond differently.

Reacting isn’t bad. It’s just information. Your dog is telling you something is too much, too close, or too scary. Your job is to help them feel safer and build the skills to make different choices over time.

All dog behavior is communication

Your dog’s overreaction to their fear triggers is often the most upsetting aspect of their reactivity. When clients come to me, it’s usually this behavior they want to change. I get it! It’s hard to deal with and even scary to experience. Yes, I can change this behavior - just not in a vacuum. By the time your dog barks and lunges at a trigger (aka: the thing that upsets them whether that’s cars, people or other dogs), a whole range of thoughts and behaviors have already happened that you probably missed. It’s these pre-outburst thoughts and actions that we have to address first before we can reduce or eliminate the barking and lunging.

You’ll notice Response to Triggers is the fourth of five elements in my powerful CHARM Approach to working with reactive dogs. I’ve developed this signature process as a result of training over 1,000 reactive dogs (and their people). The first letter “C” stands for Confidence, “H” for leash Handling skills and “A” for enrichment Activities.

Observe your dog. What do they do just before an outburst?

So, Why Does Your Dog React to Other Dogs, Cars, Men, etc.

Reactive behavior often stems from a mix of fear, frustration, or overexcitement. When your dog sees a trigger (like another dog, a person, a bike), their nervous system kicks in before they have time to think. Yelling “NO!” or trying to control your dog by tightening the leash doesn’t work - and can even make things worse —because you're not changing how your dog feels.

NOTE 1: Pain is a less common though often overlooked cause of reactive behavior. Any time your dog’s behavior suddenly changes, always consult your veterinarian first, before looking into training options.

NOTE2: The fear, frustration and overexcitement described above is often caused by your dog having been under-socialized as a puppy which is a common occurrence in rescue dogs. Dogs can also be born prone to fear and anxiety for a variety of reasons.

One of the lovely things about my CHARM Approach is, even though Reaction to Triggers comes fourth in the acronym, the approach itself is holistic in where all of your dog’s needs are addressed concurrently so you can start the desensitization and counterconditioning process used in addressing triggers at the same time you’re building their confidence and reducing stress.

As you’ve surely discovered if you read my previous article on leash handling…

Behavior Change Isn’t About Controlling Your Dog - It's About Communicating with Them

Rather than suppressing your dog’s behavior through punishment or control, you want to give your dog better ways to respond to uncomfortable situations. You do this by teaching them behaviors that are more adaptive, more relaxed, and more successful than what they are currently doing.

The same goes for us humans. If our knee-jerk reaction is panic or frustration every time our dog reacts, we get stuck in a behavior loop too. Learning to be calm and confident on walks (or anywhere) is a two-way street. You react to your dog’s outburst with stress which further upsets your dog who then acts out even more which makes you more upset, etc., etc. into infinity!

Here’s What To Do Instead of Reacting 

Rather than react to events with stress and often unhelpful actions, try using one or more of these strategies on your next walk:

• For your dog:

  • Swap lunging toward their trigger for turning toward or moving behind you. The “touch” and “look” cues work great for this. Until you’re able to change your dog’s emotional response to their triggers, distracting them is a strong option. For now, your goal is to avoid the reactive outbursts as much as possible.

    
    

  • Replace barking with sniffing on cue or offering a known behavior like giving a paw. The key here is to closely observe your dog’s behavior so you recognize when they are about to bark. As soon as you see that sign, interrupt the behavior by asking them to do something else like “shake,” “sniff,” “look,” etc.

    
    

  • Encourage and practice calming behaviors throughout the walk rather than just when encountering triggers.

    
    

• For you:

  • As counterintuitive as it may feel, do your best to hold your dog’s leash loosely! Reactive dog owners have a tendency to choke up on the leash in preparation for an outburst. Leash tension actually contributes to your dog’s stress so keeping it loose will help both of you relax. Your plan when encountering a trigger should be redirecting your dog rather than pulling them away. I know this is challenging at first which is why teaching alternative behaviors and learning the physical signs that predict behavior I mentioned in the “for your dog” section above are so important.

    
    

  • Partner with your dog so neither of you feels like a victim of their reactive behavior. Keep communication lines open by asking your dog to look at you (or whatever you’ve taught them from above) throughout the walk - especially when things are calm - rather than just around triggers. Building these habits together during moments of calm will help you during higher stress moments.

    
    

  • Practice being calm. Your chill vibe helps your dog feel safe.

    
    

Take my free course for calmer walks.

Repetition Builds Reliability

Athletes, regardless of their sport, don’t just perform during high stakes competitions; they practice their craft all the time so they stay in peak condition for when it really matters. That’s what you’re doing with your dog.

You don’t have to teach your dog a million new things. Pick and choose what works best for you and start there. The real magic comes from calm repetition of just a few behaviors in different situations that builds muscle memory and mental habits. Once your dog learns that checking in with you results in praise, treats and distance from what’s making them feel uncomfortable, they’ll choose it more and more often over time. If you remain calm, observant and confident in your and your dog’s new skills, you’re able to cut off impending outbursts before they occur. You and your dog will go forward grounded in your practiced skills feeling calm and in control.

Every time you both choose calm over chaos, you’re rewiring your emotional response to the trigger which is what changes behavior in the long run.

Watch this video on Youtube for more CHARM Approach tips and subscribe to my channel while you’re there.